Florida History: Here are Florida's top 25 stories of all time

Eliot Kleinberg @eliotkpbp

Thursday

Jan 10, 2019 at 5:00 AMJan 10, 2019 at 2:52 PM

Welcome to Florida Time, a weekly column about Florida history: from the Fountain of Youth and Walt Disney to the Miami Riots, the extent of Jim Crow, the mermaid at Weeki Wachee Springs, the moon landing and more.

Readers: Today marks the first official segment of Florida Time, the new column about Florida history. We'll get to some specific topics starting in the next few weeks. We’ll go from “macro” to “micro.” But as with any work, Florida Time will start with a table of contents.

In 1999, as a millennium drew to a close — calendar geeks: I know it officially ended Dec. 31, 2000 — The Palm Beach Post assembled a list of the most important events in Florida's history, then asked a distinguished panel of state history scholars to rate them. Even with the passage of two decades, the list still seems pretty solid. It is, of course, open to reflection and debate. Which is one of the reasons we are doing Florida Time!

1935 Labor Day hurricane; strongest ever to hit North America.“Graying" of FloridaProliferation of air conditioning makes Florida more bearable, helps increase population influx.Pensacola founded 1559; later abandoned for 139 years.

“I am fascinated with Florida history. I'd like to see a feature on how our 67 counties got their names. For instance, I'm from Manatee County but what's a Sarasota?” --Tom, Volusia County

“Before you appeared on the scene, I spent many a year reading religiously, your father Howard's columns in the erstwhile Miami Daily News and later, the Miami Herald. When you age, everything in the past seems to have had more meaning, and journalism is certainly one area that, in this day of social media, is often counted out as a way of informing us of our history and daily goings on. I welcome the Florida Time into my life.” --Janice, Flagler County

Eliot Kleinberg is a staff writer for the past three decades at The Palm Beach Post in West Palm Beach, and the author of 10 books about Florida (www.ekfla.com). Submit your questions, comments or memories to floridatime@gatehousemedia.com. Include your full name and hometown. Sorry; no personal replies.

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